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Last game Busa scored 20 and today 16.... I doubt Maret would ever score that much
It sucks they are not playing with Mirkovic, only problem is with Belcik they are already struggling a bit in the League....CL they will struggle even more.

LKS Lodz is another contender, they defeated Developres, Regiane Bidias is the best OH in the league at the moment.

And Blagojevic is playing much better than Malesevic, if Popovic returns for the WCH, maybe Blogojevic could end up taking Malesevic`s place.

I think the idea of the coach was to have Mirkovic-Zaroslinska or Belcik-Holston on the court because of the foreigners limit. If Busa and Veljkovic play in starting-six, there's only one spot for foreign player.

A lot of happend last week in the league. MKS Dabrowa Gornicza which is currently in 13th place, hired new MB. Club managment said they want to play for gold medal next season For now, it looks like they will be relegated. I guess Magda Śliwa (the headcoach) will be fired soon.
Legionovia changed its coach. I think it might be good decision. The trio from Sopot Damaske-Mielczarek-Wojcik were bench players in Legionovia and they had played really good at the end of last season.
Impel parted ways with Opp Magda Wawrzyniak. So, they have only 9 'normal' players ready to play It looks like Impel's best player is 16 y.o. Julia Szczurowska, who scored 22 points today (50%). That girls is really good.
Developres lost another MB. Magda Hawryła has some injury and Kamila Ganszczyk still isn't ready to play.

And Blagojevic is playing much better than Malesevic, if Popovic returns for the WCH, maybe Blogojevic could end up taking Malesevic`s place.

That's what I was thinking as well. Not necessarily that she should take her place, but to have her as another option for the OH position would be great. Hopefully Pušić improves enough and is able to take over as the main libero on the NT.

In connection with the leaving of the Club by Mr. Maret Balkestein-Grothues on December 6, 2017, the club, bearing in mind its statement of November 6, 2017, presents its position on this matter below:

1) On 20 June 2017, the club concluded a preliminary agreement with Mr. Maret Balkestein-Grothues, the object of which was to oblige both parties to conclude two promised agreements (sports and image) by 30 June 2017. The contract was also signed by the agent, Mr Jakub Dolata.

2) until June 30, 2017, the player did not show up at the club and did not enter the two promised agreements indicated above: and on his behalf he contacted the club, Mr. Jakub Dolata.

3) The club paid all costs related to the international transfer (Dutch Federation, CEV and PZPS), the player personally confirmed the transfer.

4) in August, September and October 2017, the club took all possible and legally prescribed actions aimed at concluding with the player Maret Balkestein-Grothues represented by Mr. Jakub Dolata two promised contracts, including the club gave the player the sole use of the flat and car and covered her with insurance, training, supplements, nutrients, sports equipment, full medical and physiotherapeutic care.

5) as a result of issuing in the final contracts in August, September and October 2017 by the player's agent in relation to the club incomprehensible and not reflected in the preliminary contract demands, the club could not accept them, but he proposed amicably to settle the matter in the form of promised contracts and refer part of the dispute to court proceedings. Agent and competitor refused.

6) on November 7, 2017, the Club directly asked the competitor to request the conclusion of promised agreements on pain of referral to court.

7) on November 8, 2017, the competitor refused to conclude these contracts without giving any reason, nor any justification for such a refusal.

on November 10, 2017, the club, betrayed by the athlete Maret Balkestein-Grothues and Mr. Jakub Dolata in an out of the ordinary situation, filed with the District Court in Szczecin a lawsuit to conclude two promised contracts.

9) at the turn of November and December 2017, the competitor, through a lawyer's office in Brussels, called the club to pay the amounts resulting from the two promised contracts despite their failure to do so. In response, the club said that it can not pay any amounts under Polish law until two promised agreements have been concluded.

10) on 6 December 2017, the contestant left the club and the city of Szczecin, without informing the club about this fact, nor providing any reason or reason for his actions. In addition, the competitor did not return the car and keys to the apartment to the club.

Very shameful from her part to do this kind of thing, it is not like volleyball clubs has money like soccer and other sports.

Weird story. As far as I remember Chemik never had any trouble with players before, many players have been there for several years now. On the other hand Maret has a history of leaving mid-season as she did last year in Bolzano...I just don't understand why she first said she'd sign with them, even lived there and watched the matches from behind there court, there's also an official photo of her in the team uniform, and now she just runs away

PRESS STATEMENT – End of contract Maret Balkenstein-Grothues.
In light of recent events regarding the contractual discontinuity between Maret Grothues and her former Polish club Chemik Police (Szczecin, Poland), the athlete and her agency Atticus Sports Management (volleyball agent Julie Rumes) react:
Facts:
Maret signed a contract with the Polish club Chemik Police of Szczecin for the season 2017-18. The club never showed any intentions of complying the contract by refusing to meet the financial agreements. Grothues was put under pressure to lower her demands despite the fact that the contract was already signed.
Maret and her agency decided to end the contract by the expense of the club.
Julie Rumes:
“As captain of the Dutch national team, Maret has always been a respected and trustworthy affiliate of the volleyball community. With 3 silver medals in the European Championships, 4th place in de Olympic games and last year’s Turkish league cup and title win with Fenerbaçe, Grothues earned her place in Women’s volleyball hall of fame.
Polish Chemik Police was fortuitous enough to sign Balkenstein-Grothues for the duration of 1 season from the beginning of oktober.
Since her arrival in Szczecin however, the contractual concessions were not respected by her new club. After two agonizing months of communication, or rather dissemination, in order to compel Chemik Police to respect the agreements, no positive results were achieved and the club refused every cooperation.
Maret has decided to cease any contractual requirements at the expense of Chemik Police. We strongly regret this course of action of the club and let justice prevail. It’s now on us to find her a new club as soon as possible.”
Maret:
“I regret it has come to this. Not only will I not be able to play champions league most likely but I’m about to lose valuable playing time. It’s important now that I find a new club as soon as possible so I can concentrate on my sport.”

PS: I feel bad for Maret and hope she comes back to Turkish league even if it is not GS, she could be very useful in Seramiksan f.e. but I don't know if they can afford her, maybe they can if they give up on one of Bayramova or Malesevic.

The Lodz city derby was relatively one-sided today: LKS Comercecon won easily in three sets against Grot Budowlani, despite the latter has the better known names. Anyway, in the table LKS was in front of Grot already before this match.

Very feeble statistics for Grot Budowlani: far too low attack efficiency, including the two most dangerous players Grobelna and Kakolewska (in sum just 31%), while LKS Comercecon had a very high value (49%).

When Heike Beier was in Budowlani, they had super-stable reception and they could play fast and use middles even if they were lacking strong spikers. Now with Beier gone, reception is really poor (so they can't use middles) and Grajber/Twardowska duo is weak in attack so they can rely only on Grobelna.

On the other hand LKS is pretty good, they have good middles, 2 strong spikers (Bidias+Kowalinska) and relatively good reception. Bidias is amazing in defence and offence and for me is MVP of the season so far with Veljkovic. If Kowalinska can stay reliable they can win Polish championship.

And if they can afford better libero (Strasz is great in defence but not my fav in reception),one good Polish OH and one more good MB they could be also really good in CL next season. They could try to sign Mucha (even though it's not her season so far) or Medrzyk for OH position and for example Stenzel as libero and Tokarska, Lukasik or Savic for MB. Also they can try Nowicka as setter. It would be really strong and affordable roster.

She`s good, not great, she must improve but I think she has a lot of potential, she`s also a good server and blocker. I think she took a year break after finishing college, so it taking her a little while to get back in shape. She`s putting big number against the "weaker" teams and struggling against the Top Teams.
Would be better for the NT if she was a OH.

Gluszak has no clue what he`s doing. Belcik is way past her prime, she makes a lot of setting errs, Mirkovic is not the best setter out there but she certainly can not do worse than Belcik and he should have been starting Mirkovic every game for her to develop a good connection with everyone.

And Busa was playing better than Medrzyk, but he replaces Busa with Smarzek and she can`t receive. And on the top of that you have Zaroslinska not having a good day, he could simply have replaced her with Smarzek and kept Busa in to receive.

Zaroslinska is already 30 and the NT needs a dominant OPP and that could very much be Smarzek, makes no sense to force her as OH...

Pretty much a one-sided match today between Chemik and Developres. Chemik committed too many errors and were quite slow in their defence. Even if they picked up the ball, the connections were terrible to score points from counterattacks.

I hope the coach tries putting Smarzek as OPP and Busa/Medrzyk as OHs together on the court for once to see how it works....